FGCs for child protection focus on repairing and remaking family and friendship bonds. The family that comes to the FGC has been disrupted in some way, and elements of repair and reconciliation are often important. In adult FGCs there are also problems regarding the relationships between people. However, given the passage of time and the adult status of the main client, there is unlikely to be a family ‘repair’ process (Marsh 2007). Whereas love is a central theme in child FGCs, death is a key theme in elder adult FGCs, and they can be very useful in helping the family to plan for a person’s end-of-life decisions.

An adult’s understanding of the concept of ‘family’ is likely to be very different from that of a child. Family members may also be more reluctant to attend an FGC for an adult than for a child. Consequently, adult FGCs often have fewer participants than those for children. It may be necessary to convince people that if they do not take part in an FGC they will miss a good chance to be involved in an important decision (interview with Professor Peter Marsh, University of Sheffield, 2012).